Workflow Technique #026

Fractal Sharpening

review note by Uwe Steinmueller

When people ask me what I use for sharpening I answer:
More often Fractal Sharpening.

Here is the story:

About five minutes after I published the review on PhotoKit
SHARPENER (provides an excellent sharpening workflow)
I got an email from Noel about his Fractal sharpening. Because
I read many postings by Noel in different news groups I gave it
a shot and got hooked.

Let me start with the downsides of his method:

You need a version of Genuine Fractals (that is not cheap, I hope
Noel comes up soon with a PS CS only action)

It is very, very slow (mainly because GF is slow)

Needs lot's of memory

The fact that I do not stop here might tell you something. We think
Noel's actions are even worth this hassle.

In principal Noel uses a well known technique but refined it in his
actions. You upsize an image and use strong sharpening, then you downsize
in steps to the original size. The use of Genuine Fractals seems to
get smoother results.

Here is a sample treated with his "Med Sharp Max Texture"
action.

Test Shot with the E-1 and the tele zoom

100% pixel, image looks a bit soft

GF sharpening 100% opacity

As Noel's actions create a new layer you can later
tone down the strength of the sharpening effect by using the opacity setting.

GF Sharpening at 50% opacity

Sometimes you get some white halos that are mostly
the result of very light halos created during the raw conversion process.
In these cases Noel also included an action "Bright Halo Reduction" to
minimize this effect.

If you own Genuine Fractals we would urge you to get
Noels actions. For some it even might be reason enough to buy Genuine
Fractals.

Noel writes on his page "I've designed a great set of sharpening actions
that do something different: They actually sharpen images!". We find
that this is not just marketing.

Recommended (we would say highly
recommended if speed and the cost of GF would not be issues)